Some highlights: PC-BSD 9 supports multiple DEs (GNOME2/XFCE4/LXDE) instead of being KDE4 only desktop, new revised PBI system that allows sharing of files and libraries between applications for reduced disk space, new AppCafe to allow easy browsing, installing and managing applications in PC-BSD system. Also the PC-BSD Control Panel has and one-stop access to a variety of system-configuration options.

It depends on what it is compared to. It evolves, just like a living being, with quality in mind.
Some other OSs may get a fast revolutions with support, that is - unfortunately - crappy.
So I'd suggest to compare - say - MacOSX and Linux state od developmnet in - for example - 1998. Linux was in the black hole of unusability then. Now it seems to have a little more, but it doesn't mean it's better from anything else. It all depends on how you see things and what are you treasuring most.

I've been playing a bit with the Beta mostly for fun / hobby so I haven't been much into media and HW testing. Not a techie here. Just like FreeBSD. Anyways....

The main nicety with this release, I think is going to be the new installer. They added some other Window managers to the installer. I chose Enlightenment and XFCE as window managers. It didn't ask me the default I've yet to be able to find a way in the GUI to change to Enlightenment - guess config file always works. It also provide the option to format a ZFS partition which I don't think prev version offered.

I'd like for it to boot faster too. I installed it for kicks on an SSD drive and Windows boots much faster than does this version of PC BSD.

I'm not much of an Xorg/'X' expert so I was pleased that the RadeonHD driver worked with a click of a button for my 3850 card.

The main deficit to the mom/pop end-user is that the App-Cafe (which is more a one-click graphic app installer using I think PBIs) only has a dozen or so apps in it. You can probably use command line ports to take of the deficit. I'm sure its only because its in beta now and they'll have a ton more in the App-Cafe soon.

This is shaping up to be a nice OS. I've been following the interviews on http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/ (I'm not associated with them in any way) and there's a lot of behind-the-scenes things they've been making. Its mostly going into the PBIs, latest updates from the FreeBSD and adding some major updgrades to the OS installation.